Cobblers boss Wilder desperate to end promotion '˜limbo'

Northampton have been nailed on for promotion for what seems like an eternity now, but this weekend the team could finally close out the deal.

A win over Notts County at Sixfields along with a defeat for Accrington Stanley and a failure to win by Bristol Rovers will see the Cobblers go up.

It is the first time the team will have had the chance to actually seal a guaranteed top three spot after a magnificent run of form that has seen the team lose just twice in the league since September 5.

They haven’t lost at all since December 19 last year, and have been double figures ahead of whoever has been in fourth place for two months, but they haven’t yet had the chance to guarantee promotion - until now.

“It has been a strange situation over the past two or three weeks, because we have been in limbo,” said Wilder.

“I think people recogise, and the players recognise, that promotion is going to happen, and I have talked about that.

“The more games you knock off, then the closer it gets in terms of mathematically and all credit to the players that they have kept going, and kept dragging results out.

“You have that many games left, but you do realise that it is very, very unlikely that somebody is going to win seven games on the bounce.

“So you get into the situation where you work it out and you think ‘well, at best what are they going to do?’

“So we have been in a bit of a limbo situation, but we are getting closer now.”

And he added: “This is the first time really that we have talked about, if things do happen in our favour, we can gain promotion and put a ‘P’ next to that famous and proud old football club called Northampton Town.

“That is what we all desperately want to do on Saturday, and we have to make sure we do our part.

“If it doesn’t go for us and Accrington get a result, and they have done great, and if Bristol Rovers get a result, then we have to move on.

“It is getting closer, and we are desperate for it to happen as soon as possible.”